Public show: The team host the show in front of 200-plus listeners (Image: PA)

Thanking his fans, he joked: “What am I going to do? I’m so instit-utionalised, I might just turn up Monday morning and just clean.”

Moyles has a year to run on his contract but in the short term he will play King Herod in a West End production of Jesus Christ Superstar. It is understood he will not be paid by the BBC while he is off air.

Moyles’s final show featured messages from friends including Jamie Oliver, McFly, Tom Daley, Gary Lineker and Chris Martin.

Station controller Ben Cooper said: “Chris is a phenomenal broadcaster.”